Trademark Lawsuit over the ¨Lucky 13¨ phrase on St. Patrick’s Day

Every year on March 17, people several countries celebrates St. Patrick’s Day. It is well known as a cultural and religious celebration that started in Ireland, to celebrate the death of Saint Patrick, known as the foremost patron saint according to history.

Saint Patrick’s Day is a public holiday in Ireland, Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, Montserrat and celebrated in other countries. But recently, this celebration become commercialised and very popular to promote products and services, people usually associate this celebration with good luck, partying or rituals to bring wealth to their lives.

The famous singer, Taylor Swift fell into the charm of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and commerce. Unluckily the artist landed in legal troubles due to a trademark infringement for the ¨Lucky 13¨ phrase. On March, 2012 she was sued by Robert Kloetzly, owner of the company that has the trademark registration for LUCKY 13 to identify clothing, jewelry, bags, and purses.

Taylor Swift sold t-shirts with the “Lucky 13” written on them through her online store, and were sold only for the St. Patrick’s Day season. Kloetzly, stated in an interview that he has been marketing clothes and accessories to a young rock ‘n roll crowd since 1991, and felt that the artist was stealing his business, by placing “Lucky 13” on her own clothing line. Kloetzly also claimed to have already contacted the singer’s party several times with no resolution.

When this type of cases occurs that’s when you ask yourself, ¨Why didn’t I get the proper and professional legal help before launching or making a new product or service?¨… well, it happens a lot.

Nowadays, people are aware of the valuable asset that they have in their hands once they protect their products or services under the Intellectual Property laws.

Remember that the first to file a patent or trademark application will be the only owner of the product or service in the country where it was granted. But that’s not the only solution, it’s extremely important to do a trademark search before filing any application, to avoid going to expensive litigation process or the denial of your trademark.

For more information regarding your trademarks or patents in Latin America, contact us at: info@brlatina.com.